In a bid to provide a resource centre on ecommerce for micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), Amazon India today announced the launch of its first Digital Kendra.
It has been set up in the city of Surat, Gujarat, and the Digital Kendra will provide the MSMEs the opportunity to learn about benefits of ecommerce and avail a range of services pertaining to it.
Chief Minister of Gujarat Vijay Rupani inaugurated the first Amazon Digital Kendra in a virtual event along with Amit Agarwal, Senior VP and Country Head, Amazon India and Manish Tiwary, VP, Amazon India.
Amazon India has chosen Surat for its first Digital Kendra because it is one of the most important MSME clusters and thousands of MSMEs are located in and around the city. Also, Amazon India has more than 100,000 sellers in Gujarat.
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One-stop centre for getting going with ecommerce
Digital Kendra is a brick and mortar resource centre, where MSMEs can learn about the benefits of ecommerce and kick start their journey towards being digital entrepreneurs.
Vijay Rupani said Amazon India's initiative will help equip MSMEs with the right knowledge, skills and support to benefit from technology adoption and ecommerce.
Amit Agarwal said “This is an earnest endeavor to bring the right tools, support and services infrastructure closer to where MSMEs are based and help them benefit from ecommerce."
Amazon will engage with local partners to set up and manage the Digital Kendras. It will provide local partners additional revenue streams while playing an integral role in creating greater awareness and understanding of e-commerce, understanding the exports markets, and offer MSMEs the tools to grow their business.
MSMEs can visit the Amazon Digital Kendra, which will be an one-stop centre for availing third party services including training on benefits of ecommerce, GST and taxation support, shipping and logistics support, cataloging assistance, digital marketing services amongst others, the company said.
Commitments being fulfilled: Amazon India
It will also provide opportunity for MSMEs to avail onboarding services if they are interested in registering as sellers on Amazon.in or engaging with other Amazon programs.
Based on the response to the new Digital Kendra, Amazon India will look to open more such centres in other parts of the country.
Last year at the inaugural Smbhav Summit, Amazon had announced three important commitments - to digitally enable 10 million MSMEs, enable ecommerce exports worth $10 billion and create 1 million additional jobs in India between 2020 and 2025. The company said it is on track to fulfil these commitments.
It claimed that it has already digitized 2.5 million MSMEs, enabled cumulative exports worth $1 billion and helped create nearly 1 million jobs in India till date including 300,000 direct and indirect jobs since January 2020.
